Does Quality Matter in Labour Input? The Changing Pattern of Labour Composition in New Zealand

The composition of the New Zealand workforce has changed considerably over the past two decades. Qualification levels have risen, labour force participation has trended upwards for women, immigrants have increasingly been sourced from Asia, and the large baby-boom cohort has contributed to an ageing of the workforce. The question is whether such compositional changes have affected the quality of labour. Our estimates show a large rise in labour quality since 1988 as a result of increasing qualification levels, particularly at university degree level. With age as a proxy for work experience, an ageing of the workforce also contributed to rising labour quality. The annual rise in labour quality averaged 0.6% from 1988 to 2005, which was comparable to the experience of Australia, the United States and the euro area. Although labour quality rose in every year of our sample period, the rise was not constant over time. The increase was much stronger in the first half of the period (1988 to 1997) than in the second half (1997 to 2005). By drawing a large number of lower-skilled people into work, the strength of recent employment growth may have dampened growth in labour quality. Accounting for changes in labour quality has implications for labour productivity. Almost half of labour productivity growth of 1.4% per annum since 1988 can be attributed to the rise in labour quality. Labour productivity measured as output per quality-adjusted working hour rose by 0.8% per annum on average from 1988 to 2005, with annual growth of 0.5% in the first half of the period and 1.1% in the second half.Labour Quality; Human Capital; Wage Differentials; Labour Productivity

The James Connolly Memorial Hospital Electronic Menu Card system

The James Connolly Memorial Hospital (JCM) require an Electronic Menu Card system so that their patients can choose their meals in a more informed and efficient manner. This entails presenting menus to the patients electronically and with an interface that will allow them to choose their meal. The electronic nature of such a system means more options can be incorporated in terms of language and presentation. In addition the system can be accessed anytime so the information will be available in a more timely fashion which will have positive knock on effects in terms of food ordering systems, food wastage etc

Labour Market Trends and Outlook

This paper provides an overview of trends in the New Zealand economy and labour market in 2001 and 2002, and the outlook for 2003 and 2004. More people than ever before have been attracted into the New Zealand labour market during the last two years -from outside the labour force and from around the world- encouraged by robust growth in employment and wages, low unemployment, and employers who are finding it difficult to find suitable staff. The main driver of improving labour market conditions has been strong growth in the New Zealand economy (an average of 3 ½ per cent per annum in the last three years), despite the recent downturn in the world economy. The pattern of economic growth has changed in recent years, leading to varying rates of employment growth by industry and region. Nevertheless, labour market conditions have improved across the majority of regions, as well as across most of the broad ethnic and age groups, and by gender. The outlook is for the New Zealand economy to experience solid growth over the next two years, although there are important upside and downside risks. The positive central outlook is expected to see labour market conditions remain relatively strong during 2003 and 2004

Recent Trends in Wage Growth

Wage growth has risen since the beginning of the new millennium in response to an increasingly tight labour market. So far, however, most measures have shown relatively muted nominal growth in wages given that unemployment is at historic lows and reported staff shortages are at historic highs. Wages are vital to the performance of the labour market because they are an important incentive to attract people into industries and occupations where workers are in short supply, and make up a large proportion of income for people and of expenditure for firms. This paper examines recent wage trends in New Zealand to show that wage growth has been broadly appropriate in the current economic expansion. One of the key difficulties of looking at wage growth is the preponderance of different measures. This paper starts by outlining the various measures of wage growth and then these measures are used to analyse the link between wage growth and labour market conditions

Labour Market Trends and Outlook

This paper provides an overview of trends in the New Zealand economy and labour market in 2001 and 2002, and the outlook for 2003 and 2004. More people than ever before have been attracted into the New Zealand labour market during the last two years -from outside the labour force and from around the world- encouraged by robust growth in employment and wages, low unemployment, and employers who are finding it difficult to find suitable staff. The main driver of improving labour market conditions has been strong growth in the New Zealand economy (an average of 3 ½ per cent per annum in the last three years), despite the recent downturn in the world economy. The pattern of economic growth has changed in recent years, leading to varying rates of employment growth by industry and region. Nevertheless, labour market conditions have improved across the majority of regions, as well as across most of the broad ethnic and age groups, and by gender. The outlook is for the New Zealand economy to experience solid growth over the next two years, although there are important upside and downside risks. The positive central outlook is expected to see labour market conditions remain relatively strong during 2003 and 2004

Recent Trends in Wage Growth

Wage growth has risen since the beginning of the new millennium in response to an increasingly tight labour market. So far, however, most measures have shown relatively muted nominal growth in wages given that unemployment is at historic lows and reported staff shortages are at historic highs. Wages are vital to the performance of the labour market because they are an important incentive to attract people into industries and occupations where workers are in short supply, and make up a large proportion of income for people and of expenditure for firms. This paper examines recent wage trends in New Zealand to show that wage growth has been broadly appropriate in the current economic expansion. One of the key difficulties of looking at wage growth is the preponderance of different measures. This paper starts by outlining the various measures of wage growth and then these measures are used to analyse the link between wage growth and labour market conditions

Application of the Hough Transform to Aid Raised Pavement Marker Detection on Marked Roadways

A machine vision system is proposed that will identify and locate GPS co-ordinates of defective Raised Pavement Markers along road lane markings. This system will comprise of a mobile data acquisition system, and a separate ofjline image analysis system. In this paper we present a method for road lane marking identification, using a Hough Transform based technique. This paper describes the implementation of the Hough Transform for line detection. Using the Hough Transform algorithm road lane markings are automatically identified, given a scene acquired from a digital camera system. This knowledge is intended to be used to aid current research in the area of defective Raised Pavement Marker detection at 1TB. Results of a sample dataset are presented and discusse

Interprofessional online learning for primary healthcare: findings from a scoping review

Objectives: This article presents the findings from a scoping review which explored the nature of interprofessional online learning in primary healthcare. The review was informed by the following questions: What is the nature of evidence on online postgraduate education for primary healthcare interprofessional teams? What learning approaches and study methods are used in this context? What is the range of reported outcomes for primary healthcare learners, their organisations and the care they deliver to patients/clients? Setting: The review explored the global literature on interprofessional online learning in primary healthcare settings. Results: The review found that the 23 included studies employed a range of different e-learning methods with contrasting course durations, use of theory, participant mix, approaches to accreditation and assessment of learning. Most of the included studies reported outcomes associated with learner reactions and positive changes in participant attitudes/perceptions and improvement in knowledge/skills as a result of engagement in an e-learning course. In contrast, fewer studies reported changes in participant behaviours, changes in organisational practice and improvements to patients/clients. Conclusions: A number of educational, methodological and outcome implications are be offered. E-learning can enhance an education experience, support development, ease time constraints, overcome geographic limitations and can offer greater flexibility. However, it can also contribute to the isolation of learners and its benefits can be negated by technical problem

Shear Stress Markedly Alters the Proteomic Response to Hypoxia in Human Pulmonary Endothelial Cells

Blood flow produces shear stress that homeostatically regulates the phenotype of pulmonary endothelial cells, exerting antiinflammatory and antithrombotic actions and maintaining normal barrier function. Hypoxia due to diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), causes vasoconstriction, increased vascular resistance, and pulmonary hypertension. Hypoxia-induced changes in endothelial function play a central role in the development of pulmonary hypertension. However, the interactive effects of hypoxia and shear stress on the pulmonary endothelial phenotype have not been studied. Human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells were cultured in normoxia or hypoxia while subjected to physiological shear stress or in static conditions. Unbiased proteomics was used to identify hypoxia-induced changes in protein expression. Using publicly available single-cell RNA sequencing datasets, differences in gene expression between the alveolar endothelial cells from COPD and healthy lungs were identified. Sixty proteins were identified whose expression changed in response to hypoxia in conditions of physiological shear stress but not in static conditions. These included proteins that are crucial for endothelial homeostasis (e.g., JAM-A [junctional adhesion molecule A], ERG [ETS transcription factor ERG]) or implicated in pulmonary hypertension (e.g., thrombospondin-1). Fifty-five of these 60 have not been previously implicated in the development of hypoxic lung diseases. mRNA for 5 of the 60 (ERG, MCRIP1 [MAPK regulated corepressor interacting protein 1], EIF4A2 [eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4A2], HSP90AA1 [heat shock protein 90 alpha family class A member 1], and DNAJA1 [DnaJ Hsp40 (heat shock protein family) member A1]) showed similar changes in the alveolar endothelial cells of COPD compared with healthy lungs in females but not in males. These data show that the proteomic responses of the pulmonary microvascular endothelium to hypoxia are significantly altered by shear stress and suggest that these shear-hypoxia interactions are important in the development of hypoxic pulmonary vascular disease.Science Foundation IrelandEuropean Commission Horizon 2020Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant2024-02-02 JG check funders list add E

Pulmonary endothelial permeability and tissue fluid balance depend on the viscosity of the perfusion solution

Fluid filtration in the pulmonary microcirculation depends on the hydrostatic and oncotic pressure gradients across the endothelium and the selective permeability of the endothelial barrier. Maintaining normal fluid balance depends both on specific properties of the endothelium and of the perfusing blood. Although some of the essential properties of blood needed to prevent excessive fluid leak have been identified and characterized, our understanding of these remains incomplete. The role of perfusate viscosity in maintaining normal fluid exchange has not previously been examined. We prepared a high-viscosity perfusion solution (HVS) with a relative viscosity of 2.5, i.e., within the range displayed by blood flowing in vessels of different diameters in vivo (1.5–4.0). Perfusion of isolated murine lungs with HVS significantly reduced the rate of edema formation compared with perfusion with a standard solution (SS), which had a lower viscosity similar to plasma (relative viscosity 1.5). HVS did not alter capillary filtration pressure. Increased endothelial shear stress produced by increasing flow rates of SS, to mimic the increased shear stress produced by HVS, did not reduce edema formation. HVS significantly reduced extravasation of Evans bluelabeled albumin compared with SS, indicating that it attenuated endothelial leak. These findings demonstrate for the first time that the viscosity of the solution perfusing the pulmonary microcirculation is an important physiological property contributing to the maintenance of normal fluid exchange. This has significant implications for our understanding of fluid homeostasis in the healthy lung, edema formation in disease, and reconditioning of donor organs for transplantation